Historic Italian brand hopes to carve itself a slice of the family SUV pie with this all-new model On sale Now Price from £38,595
Dan Jones Dan.Jones@haymarket.com
FIRST DRIVE
LET’S IMAGINE YOU own a car company that has a rich heritage of exciting cars and something of a cult following. What do you do if you want to attract more customers? Well, these days, you add a sporty SUV to your line-up. After all, more than 50% of the cars you can buy in the UK fit into various SUV categories.
Of course, this isn’t Alfa Romeo’s first SUV; the brand’s bigger Stelvio has been around since 2016. This new Tonale, though, is a more affordable model to challenge such popular rivals as the BMW X1 and Volvo XC40. Not only that, but with its mild hybrid and plug-in hybrid power options, the Tonale marks the first step in Alfa’s plan to go electric, with its first fully electric vehicle due to follow in 2024.
So far, we’ve tried the mild hybrid, which combines a 158bhp 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine with a small electric motor – a set-up that brings official fuel economy to match that of the full-hybrid Hyundai Tucson.
Unlike most mild hybrids, the Tonale enables you to drive on electricity alone for brief periods in low-speed traffic, but it only takes a tickle of the accelerator for the petrol engine to kick in. When it does, the Tonale can sprint from 0-62mph in 8.8sec – not hugely quick (the Tucson hybrid takes around a second less) but fine for everyday driving. However, when you want to get a move on, planting the accelerator is met with hesitation from the Tonale’s seven-speed automatic gearbox and a delay in dropping down a cog.
More impressive is the Tonale’s smooth and comfy ride. It’s especially good around town, doing a great job of shielding occupants from lumps and bumps and taking the wince out of potholes. When speeds increase, you start to move from side to side in your seat slightly more, but it’s never uncomfortable and the suspension set-up continues to take the edge off imperfections with ease. Top-spec Veloce cars come with adaptive suspension that stiffens up when you switch to Dynamic mode, but doing so makes it a bit too firm, so we wouldn’t bother upgrading from the regular suspension you get on the entry-level Ti.
Besides, the regular Tonale is fun enough when things get twisty, exhibiting very little lean through corners and giving you plenty of feedback through its well-weighted and direct steering. Indeed, even compa
